The present invention relates to a gas appliance for heating and/or cooking food.
Traditionally, in order to heat and/or cook food deposited on or in a food-receiving element such as a grill plate or a receptacle, said element is placed above a burner and, more precisely, on a series of support lugs extending horizontally above and in the immediate vicinity of the burner.
In certain embodiments, the receptacle stands directly on the burner.
Thus, Document U.S. Pat. No. 4,264,298 describes a gas burner whose cap is enlarged to form a plane head resembling a hot plate. The flames form at the periphery of a central chamber of small size. Combustion takes place outside said chamber and the flames come into contact with the under-face of the head. For this purpose, the flames are large, which results in large heat loss at the flame tips, giving brightness that is high but that is unnecessary.
In any event, such a configuration does not make it possible to heat the plate uniformly, especially when it is of large size.
In addition, the plate is designed to receive a cooking receptacle.
In spite of the proximity of the flame and of the receptacle, the energy is not transmitted fully to said receptacle. Additional heat losses occur between the flame and the inside of the receptacle.
When the food-receiving element has a large area to be heated, as it does when it is a pancake cooker plate, the structure of known burners is much more complex.
Thus, pancake cooker burners are known that comprise series of parallel and horizontal tubes through which a gas/air mixture flows, which tubes are provided with holes through which the combustion flames are released.
Others each have a central hub for receiving a gas/air mixture, which hub communicates with a set of branches distributed in a star shape, perpendicularly to the hub. Multiple holes are provided in said branches.
In those two types of burner, the pancake cooker plate is separate and is mounted above the burner, and, as in the preceding configuration, that gives rise to large heat losses between the burner and the support or food-receiving element.
In addition, such burners are complicated and costly to manufacture.
An object of the present invention is to remedy the drawbacks suffered by those known devices.
In other words, an object of the present invention is to provide a gas appliance whose heat losses are small, and that makes it possible to heat and/or cook food uniformly, even when it is deposited on a support that is large in size.
Another object of the present invention is to achieve the above-mentioned objects with an appliance whose structure is simple and inexpensive.
The invention thus provides a gas appliance for heating and/or cooking food, said appliance being characterized essentially by the facts that it includes a housing comprising a bottom body receiving a gas/air mixture to be burnt, and a top cover in the form of a plate designed to rest on said body, orifices being provided in said housing, through which orifices the gas/air mixture can be released and burnt, that the top face of said plate constitutes a surface for receiving food to be heated and/or to be cooked, and that the housing has a sinuous outline with radial branches, organized so that said gas/air mixture is released and burnt in central regions, peripheral regions, and radial regions of the under-face of the cover.
Thus, the food-receiving surface is in direct contact with the flame, so that the heat losses are small.
In addition, a single housing suffices to feed the entire appliance with the gas/air mixture.
Furthermore, since the food-receiving element is implemented in one piece with the cover, the cost of the assembly is advantageous and it is relatively simple to manufacture.
Finally, because of the sinuous outline of the housing, the flames are distributed uniformly over a large portion of the under-face of the cover. They can therefore be of small size, which improves their energy efficiency.
According to advantageous but non-limiting characteristics of the invention:
a wall having a closed and sinuous outline projects from the under-face of the cover, which wall comes into abutment on a low wall having the same outline and situated on the bottom body, said wall and said low wall defining said housing laterally;
the under-face of said cover comes into abutment directly on a low wall having a closed and sinuous outline and situated on the bottom body;
said plate is a pancake cooker plate;
said plate is a grill plate which may be ribbed or otherwise;
said release orifices extend in the vicinity of the junction plane on which the bottom body meets said cover;
said orifices consist of a series of notches formed in the top edge of said low wall, whose top openings are closed off by said cover;
said orifices consist of a series of notches formed in the bottom edge of said wall or in the body thereof;
said orifices consist of a series of notches formed in an intermediate piece suitable for being interposed between said wall and said low wall; and
the outline of said housing has a shape similar to the shape of a star.